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Wondering Pilgrim

~ the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner

Wondering Pilgrim

Tag Archives: Gospel of Mark

Presenting one’s credentials …

24 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Personal, Spirituality, theology

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

authority, Gospel of Mark, healing

Healing_of_the_demon-possessedFirst impressions are paramount, our life coaches tell us. Suit up, look confident and practice that opening line if you want to succeed in love, finance and influence.

What if your goal is to begin a process that transforms the world from one beholden to despotic violence to one that exhibits the wholesome fullness of a paradise based on selfless care for the environment, one another and relationship with the Ground of all Being? How does one present one’s credentials?

Jesus went to his community’s regular gathering place to teach and expand a collective vision of shalom – a marination in the peace of the reign of G-d. (Mark 1:21-28) On cue, the darkest manifestation of the tyranny that opposes this vision arises in a troubled villager and challenges him. Jesus summarily dismisses the demon and the man is healed. The crowd is amazed and Jesus has established his bona fide before the end of the first chapter in Mark’s story.

Contemporary commentary on this story tends to focus on the phenomenon of “demon possession” and “mental illness.” This misses the point. Mark’s gospel sets the stage for understanding the nature of our engagement in a conflict of cosmic proportions. Jesus is presented as the one anointed with the influence and authority to overcome all that threatens to overwhelm and destroy.

Devious Diggers and Wondrous Widows

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Personal, Spirituality, theology

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Gospel of Mark, Mark 12, Remembrance Day, World War I

Wounded arriving at triage station, Suippes, F...

Wounded arriving at triage station, Suippes, France from sanitary train. Selected by Scott. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A couple of old AIF paybooks and a notebook scrawled with addresses of billets  in WWI France came to light in a clean-up the other day. They belonged to my grandfather who died the year before I was born. Handling them  once again gave the sense of missed connection.  From all accounts, he sat lightly and optimistically towards  life, never missing an opportunity to meet, greet and dream of possibilities. His pay books trace his journeys through the iconic WWI battlefields of Gallipoli and Ypres where, no doubt, he participated in action that he and his ilk never discussed. His notebook speaks of intimate and hospitable human connections.

This Remembrance Day my grandfather reminds me of all who are caught up in the great sweep of world events, carried by forces beyond their control, yet are bearers and creators of their own unique responses.

Like the destitute widow mentioned in Mark’s gospel reading today – the one who furtively put all her two coins in the Temple receptacle alongside the contributions of the wealthy.  Jesus noted (sadly, compassionately?) that, from her poverty, she had given much more than the paltry gifts of the wealthy from their abundance.

Perhaps she too, was a creative player against a system born of vast sweeping uncontrollable forces. The temple system was exposed to the greed, corruption and political play of less than pious opportunists. Jesus’ railing against the Temple traders and money-changers attests to the familiarity of “the way things worked – but what can one do but go along with it?” The totality of the widow’s gift can be seen as a defiant negation of a system that is rigged against her. In treating the gift to the Temple as originally intended, she is nevertheless aiding and abetting the very enterprise that is exploiting and “devouring widow’s houses.”

She, too, becomes characteristic in Jesus’ teaching  – a type perhaps of how Jesus, in the remaining chapters of Mark’s gospel, gives himself wholly to unrelenting forces of power and political expediency in order to bring about the realisation of love’s purpose – the realm of God at large amongst and within us.

When faced with overwhelming forces, whether it be human conflict, the GFC, post 9/11 paranoia, or the technological revolution, it seems to me that my grandfather and the widow of Mark 12 point out our choices – be overcome by the flow or make your own creative gestures that counteract and subvert the deadly discourses.

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Markathon!

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Spirituality, theology, Wembley Downs

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bill Loader, Gospel of Mark, Lent, public reading

First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pi...

Image via Wikipedia

“Let’s do a public community reading of Mark’s gospel!”

“Oh yeah!” I thought. “Who’s going to come?”

So 40 people aged from 7 to 90 gathered on a hot Sunday evening for our first public community reading of Mark’s gospel. It took 90 minutes, three narrators, and about 12 voices to read various characters. (For some reason I was allocated the voices of the unclean spirits and Judas!)

By the time the women fled the open tomb (we used Mark’s short ending), several observations could be made:

  • the event had a strong effect on all gathered , from youngest to oldest – some commented that they had come to appreciate Mark’s gospel in a new light
  • although Mark is an action gospel, Jesus still had plenty to say – lots of “red letter” words.
  • Mark’s gospel has a continuity of narrative that is easily missed through a habitual selective focus on its many vignettes.
  • Immersion in a total public reading of the gospel leads to a sense of participation in the flow of the narrative.

Some will wonder whether this non-analytical approach short changed us. No worries –  internationally renowned New Testament scholar, Professor William (Bill) Loader will be conducting a series on Mark’s gospel over the weeks between now and Easter. We combine with the Wembley Downs Uniting Church who will be hosting the series.  The topics are:

26 February – “Good News” according to Mark – what does salvation and faith and eternal life look like in Mark – in comparison with others?

4 March – Mark on Scripture – looking at the controversy stories and how they reflect different approaches to Scripture.

11 March –  An evening with Herod the Great: Sex and Power in the world of Jesus and Mark (a lot of fun as well as informative)

18 March – Mark on Miracles – looking at the problems and possibilities posed by miracle stories for Mark and other NT writers.

25 March – Mark on being human and being God – looking at the conflicting models of humanness, Jesus and God between Jesus and the disciples.

Should be fun!

 

 

 

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